1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information record medium such as an optical disk of a high recording density type, which is capable of recording information such as video information, audio information and the like at a high density, and which is represented by a DVD (Digital Video or Versatile Disk). The present invention also relates to a recording apparatus for recording the information onto the information record medium, and a reproducing apparatus for reproducing the information from the information record medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a so-called LD (Laser Disk) and a so-called CD (Compact Disk) are generalized as optical disks, on which information such as video information, audio information and the like is recorded.
On the LD or the like, the video information and the audio information are recorded together with time information indicating a time at which each information is to be reproduced with respect to a reproduction start position, which each LD or the like has, as a standard position. Thus, other than a general normal reproduction to reproduce the recorded information in the order of recording, various special reproductions are possible, such as a reproduction to extract and listen to an only desirable music out of a plurality of recorded musics, a reproduction to listen to the recorded musics in a random order and so on, in case of the CD, for example.
However, with the conventional LD mentioned above, video image or audio sound cannot be reproduced in such an interactive and variegated manner that gives the audience several options in selecting video image to be displayed or audio sound to be played back.
For example, when watching a foreign movie recorded in an LD, the audience cannot select preferable language for the title credit (subscript) displayed on the screen (e.g., select either Japanese language or the original language). Similarly, when listening to the music in a CD, the audience cannot select a preferable version out of multiple versions of the same music piece (e.g., English lyrics or Japanese lyrics).
Further, it is very difficult to store different editing versions of one movie (e.g., an original version, a theater version, a video version, etc.) on one LD or the like, because even common portions must be recorded double or more for each of these versions. Thus, under the current technique, it is practically necessary to store only one of these versions on respective one of the different disks. Accordingly, the audience cannot select one of the different versions of the same movie from one disk.
Furthermore, since it is also impossible to record multiple versions of a scene taken from different camera angles simultaneously in one movie film, the audience cannot select an image of a preferable camera angle among different camera angles. Thus, fun and enjoyment of the audience is limited in this respect.
The conventional LD or the like cannot treat both of a moving picture and a still image simultaneously in the same scheme. For example, with a slide show composed of still images and associated audio sounds, it is impossible for the audience to search only the still image corresponding to an arbitrary reproduction time.
It is not realized yet to record one movie while grouping it into several data portions, such that a certain portion can be reproduced only by a specific reproducing apparatus (e.g., which allows only adults to reproduce it), and some other data portions can be reproduced by any reproducing apparatus. Also, a reproducing apparatus, which can automatically select the reproducible data portions to thereby reproduce it, is not proposed yet. Meanwhile, various proposals and developments as for the DVD, which is an optical disk having a memory capacity about ten times as much as that of the conventional CD without changing the size of the optical disk itself, are energetically being made nowadays. However, in case of recording onto the DVD the record information which can offer the multiple options to the audience in the aforementioned manner and which can reproduce the selected content of the record information correctly, reliably and promptly, various control informations must be recorded besides the various types of video information and audio information to be reproduced.
However, in this case, since different types of informations are recorded as the video and audio informations, and due to the complication in the relationships between these informations and the control informations to control them, there is raised such a problem that video images are interrupted or the relation between the video image and its associated audio sound is destroyed especially during a special reproduction, such as a fast forwarding, a so-called time search (i.e., a search based on time), a reverse reproduction and so on.